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Rascal

I got this sweet rascal a very cute shirt courtesy of the Mandolorian and Kohl’s. It’s absolutely adorable on him. I wanted to buy Athena a dress, but we didn’t think she would fit into any of them. They did have the cutest yellow gingham dress that I wanted to get for her. She’s got such a friendly, cute personality, the dress really would be perfect for her.

After our morning errands, I chilled on the couch for quite awhile before deciding to run. Fortunately, today’s run went much better than Thursday’s runs. Thankfully, I didn’t throw up after this one. I toyed with the idea of doing the BBG ab workout, but decided to take it easy the rest of the day.

For dinner, I was feeling like Greek food. Consequently, we had lemon lamb chops, lemon potatoes and homemade bread. I also made a chickpea salad as an accompaniment for dinner, but also as something for me to snack on through the week. On this new program, I have to be careful about the snacks and foods I choose. A chickpea salad with lots of fresh vegetables is a perfect fit.

The rest of the night will be spent watching the Minnesota Wild beat the Edmonton Oilers. Naturally, the rascal, aka Anakin, and Athena will be chilling with the hubby and I as we take in some hockey. Once the game is over, we’ll head to bed because I’m tired. Lastly, congrats to the Finnish Men’s hockey team as they won the gold medal last night.

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Grocery shopping

It is me or has grocery shopping become a super painful experience? Now mind you, I don’t actually go to the store and shop, but the prices in my Shipt and store apps continue to go up. Last summer, a gallon of milk was $2.49. Now that same gallon of milk is $3.99, which adds up when you’re going through more than seven gallons in a week.

Fortunately, I don’t do a lot of driving, so I haven’t experienced much pain at the pump. My hubby, who had been driving to Miami for work, experienced the misery at the pump in full force. Between the increase in costs of food and fuel, I feel like my mortgage will soon be my cheapest bill. Thankfully, the butcher box prices haven’t gone up yet.

Anyway, when I was lamenting the pain off grocery shopping today, I was killing it at work. Today was one of those days that you don’t want to step away from the phone because every call is going you way. Those days don’t happen early, so I was all about that life today. I did, however, take a short lunch break to get in my run. Fortunately, the break in the action didn’t muck up the mojo. Of course, the highlight of the day was getting our weekly call from Jake. Here’s hoping tomorrow is just as good!

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Relaxing

So after a bit of a hellish, I spent yesterday evening getting a very relaxing massage. It was just what the doctor ordered. Last night I had a new masseuse, who unsurprisingly was shocked at how tight my leg muscles are. I’ve heard that from every masseuse I’ve ever used and I swear I do stretch. Of course, the rest of my muscles were also super tight and I’m feeling it today. I had no idea you could get knots in your muscles over your ribs. Ouch!

My legs were pretty sore today, from both the massage and leg day, which made my run quite arduous. I also haven’t eaten much over the past few days on account of an questionable stomach. This definitely didn’t help make my run any easier. As I finished my run, I saw my masseuse’s face telling me to stretch more, so I did spend some time stretching during my phone calls. I’m loving my new wireless headset.

Speaking of relaxing, I haven’t been great at sticking to a good yoga practice. I definitely need it, but by the time I can actually practice I’m way too tired. Hopefully, I can get myself back into a regular routine of yoga and massages. If the way my muscles feel today is any indication, I need to be getting massages regularly or maybe every other day.

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New Day

It’s a new day and a new month. Today was a much better day in the office. I cleared 10K easy despite working an hour less. Coincidentally, that’s exactly the kind of day you hope for. It’s still our busy season, but this year’s OEP seems to be less busy than last year. Nevertheless, I’m primed for success and have great support from my leadership.

Naturally, the key to my success is my fabulous sales assistants. They were well behaved today , which is always a bonus. I love having them by my side as I work all day. In fact, they’re really a great selling tool. People don’t always like sales calls, but most people love animals. My puppies are pretty quiet, but when they do bark my clients love it. This opens up the door for them to talk about their furry kids. Happiness is sharing cute animal stories with your clients as they buy from you.

Speaking of a new day, I officially started the Calibrate program this afternoon. It’s a metabolic reset program that led by a MD and coaches. My endo encouraged me to give the program a try to help take off the remaining thyroid weight and normalize my cholesterol numbers. So far the hardest part has been having to give up the Splenda in my morning coffee. They start the program gradually as it promotes success. If you make too many dramatic changes immediately, it makes it hard to sustain.

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Watching the Skies

Today’s bloganuary prompt is all about watching the skies and how the stars make you feel. The timing could not be better. This evening right after work, SpaceEx launched their Falcon 9 rocket. Fortunately, the Hubby gave me a heads up, so the boys and I were able to watch it. By the time we made it outside, the booster had separated from the rocket and was starting its descent. Meanwhile, the rocket was continuing to gain altitude as it tracked southward over our house.

We finally lost the booster right as it was about to land. We could see the engines fire and then it disappeared. I have to admit that it never gets old watching the launches. It’s incredible to me that we’re able to see so much from hundreds of miles away. I tried to get some photos of both the rocket and booster, but it’s hard to capture how cool it looks on film.

Back to the prompt of watching the skies, when I look up at the stars or even at the rocket, it’s a bit like staring at the ocean. You can’t help, but feel small while being mesmerized by the beauty of the night sky or sea. There’s something comforting in the largess and beauty off both. One of the coolest experiences we had here in Florida was the night sky after Wilma knocked out power to the South Florida area. You could literally see every star in the sky and the the Milky Way was incredibly vibrant. It was incredible!

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Whoops

Whoops, so apparently playlist is today’s prompt for bloganuary. I was a day early for the prompt. Oh well, music was in my mind yesterday, so the prompt worked well. Tomorrow, I’ll rejoin the challenge with the right prompt in the right day. Speaking of playlists, I added some Oasis to my 90s playlist today. Wonderwall was the perfect song to cool down to and finish my workout.

It’s Friday, but this week it doesn’t mean the end of the work week for me. I’ll be working tomorrow albeit not a full day. Two more days to finish the month strong, so hopefully tomorrow is a good day. Saturdays can be hit and miss. I do like that Saturday don’t start until 10:00, so I have a lot of fine do get stuff down before work starts.

Meanwhile, we are expecting some seriously cold temperatures, by South Florida standards, this weekend. In fact, we could see low temperatures in the 30s, which is crazy. Nevertheless, we probably still won’t turn the heat on. We’ve used it so infrequently that it smells terrible when you first turn it on. Honestly, we’ve probably used it twice in the sixteen years that we’ve lived here. Thankfully, we have plenty of blankets and hoodies to keep us warm.

This week I got back on track with my BBG workouts and running. I just finished the third strength training workout and have two more runs on the week. Next week I’ll start BBG 2.0. This is the second time I’ve finished BBG 1.0. Albeit it was structured differently this time, which was nice. Today’s run absolutely kicked my butt. Hopefully, it will be easier next week. Anyway, tomorrow I’ll rectify my whoops by posting the right prompt for the day.

Lastly, one of the members of our hockey family needs our help. Coach F, who. Goalielocks has played for, is a wonderful hockey dad and coach. Unfortunately, they just lost their home to a fire. Please consider donating to this wonderful family and help them rebuild their home. You can donate here.

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Playlist

In my mind, the perfect playlist is essential for every occasion. Particularly, I love my workout playlists. It’s another tool in the chest that helps me stick to my routine and keep my pace if I’m running. My go to music for my running playlist has been Metallica, The Offspring, Green Day, God Smack and Bush. The opening rif to For Whom The Bell Tolls is perfect pushing through a difficult run. I love it!

When I strength train there’s still plenty of Metallica and company, but it’s a broader playlist. Lately, I’ve been listening to a 90’s playlist that Apple Music built based on our music library. It’s a great collection of music albeit not all of the songs work well for working out. I don’t know about you, but REM’s Everybody Hurts isn’t my favorite hype song. Obviously I love the song, but it doesn’t work in the gym.

The largest collection music on my phone is my hockey playlist. After ten years of playing music at the boys’ hockey games, I’ve got over 300 songs on there. Clearly, there’s a lot of overlap between my lists, but the hockey one is quite diverse. I got everything from the Beatles to Britney Spears and Rammstein to Daddy Yankee. Anyway, music makes my world go round. It brings joy and color to life and keeps me focused on my runs, which is not an easy feat. What’s your go to pump up song? Let me know in the comments.

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Perfect Day

So today’s theme for bloganury is perfect day. How fitting that yesterday suck and today was a much better day. Was it perfect now? But on the whole it was significantly better than yesterday. In fact, even the puppies were on board for a better day. To be fair, however, they did lose their morning front yard privileges. Their morning and afternoon trips outside were relegated to the backyard, which apparently is not as interesting.

At work, things were much better as well. It wasn’t the knockout days I’d come accustomed to during AEP, but it was good. Goalielocks was able to go back to school after staying home the last few days with the flu. Tamiflu is definitely a wonder drug. It knocked out the worst of his symptoms pretty quickly. We kept him home until he had been without a fever for 24 consecutive hours. Yesterday would have been just short of the requisite 24 hours, so he stayed home.

Since the new year started, my ability to wake up early and workout had disappeared. Consequently, I ran two miles and walked a mile over my lunch. It’s actually a really nice way to breakup the workday and collect my sanity. Moreover, a good run always helps improve my energy and erase any negativity from the morning. The puppies would love for me to run outside, but the impact is just too much for me at this time. Hopefully, once I get back from Charleston, I can get back into my early morning habit.

Today may not have been the perfect day, but it was a great day! The highlight, of course, was talking to Jake. He looked and sounded really good today. In fact, he didn’t look as tired as usual. Thankfully, work and school continue to go really well for him. I just love getting the call from him and seeing how good he looks and sounds. It definitely puts this mom’s mind at ease.

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Sunrise

The hubby and I started our day with a trip to the beach to see the sunrise. While the weather didn’t cooperate fully, it was beautiful to watch the sky and water change as the sun came up. We got there just before 6:30 and were taken aback by the number of people already there. Consequently, the surf was unusually high for South Florida, so the surfers were there to take advantage of the nice waves.

It’s always nice to taken in the salty air of the beach. My sinuses always feel better after spending time near the water. Hopefully, next time the weather will cooperate, so we can see the sunrise fully. Nonetheless, it was the perfect way to start our day. Afterwards, we just chilled on the couch with the puppies.

Originally, I had a lunch date with my friend Terri, but had to cancel since Goalielocks had been sick. Fortunately, he does not have Covid. Unfortunately, he does have the flu. Thankfully, we caught it super early and he hasn’t been around the rest of us since Wednesday. Last time he had the flu, we caught it late and had all been exposed. Thank God this time he’s on Tamiflu and is self sufficient. Like last time, he had the flu vaccine, which should lessen the severity of his illness.

This afternoon I channeled my inner baker, thank you Great British Bake-off, and made a Swiss cake roll. It was relatively easy to make, but there are a couple of adjustments I’ll make for the next time. First, the pan has to be 11X17. Secondly, when I roll it with the tea towel, I’ll not wrap it up in the tea towel. This should allow for a tighter wrap.

While I was waiting for the cake roll to cool, I made some pickled vegetables. I’ve developed a taste for pickled vegetables. Naturally, this works well since it’s minimal calories, yet satiating. This time I used cauliflower, orange pepper, carrots, onions, garlic and dill. I made a quick pickle recipe, so I didn’t have to boil the jars or anything. Once I’ve tried them, I’lll share the recipe here (only if it turns out good.)

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Back To It

Well I was back to it today after taking most of last week off. Unfortunately my computer, or more to the point my wifi, didn’t want to cooperate this morning. Fortunately, I was able to resolve the issue relatively quickly and then had no issues the rest of the day. Thankfully, I was much busier at work today than I have been. Woohoo!


It felt good to be back. Admittedly, I like and need the structure. Before going back to work today, I spent the weekend relaxing at home. I baked a tiramisu and prime rib roast on Saturday, which was mighty tasty. Yesterday, the hubby and I took the puppies for a walk in the Glades. It was an absolutely beautiful morning. The puppies had a great time. I, however, was disappointed that we didn’t see any alligators.

The rest of the day, we binge watched the Office and It’s Always Sunny. We had planned on having leftovers for dinner, but I changed my mind. Consequently, I sent Goalielocks and his GF to the store to get supplies for homemade pizzas. The only crust they had available was mini pizzas and a brand I’ve never eaten before. Thankfully, the new crust was mighty tasty and the perfect size.


Hubby and the Mayor are back to it tonight. That is back at hockey practice as we resume our normal schedule. This of course means a mad dash until SAHOF (the state tournament.) I’m loving my new planner and productivity stickers. Hopefully, I’ll be able to stay on top of our collective, crazy schedules.